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Topic: Cheese making recommendations... (Read 1169 times)

I want to make my first cheese and would like a recommendation from the experienced cheesemakers, I already have all the basic ingredients and supplies, and I want to make something very easy that we can enjoy soon... any help would be greatly appreciated...

You didn't mention if you want it to be a soft fresh cheese or aged cheese. I think Brie is easy for a soft aged cheese and it's aging is fairly short, If you do this one let me know and I can tell you a coup elf are aspects the recipes don't mention.

Caerphilly is an easy aged cheese that you can eat in 3 weeks or so. Look for a photo and video recipe at www.littlegreencheese.com. It's a simple make and great confidence builder as well as yummy cheese.

Chevre or a simple acid coagulated cheese is fast and tasty too.

Do you have a recipe source? That website I mentioned can be a nice starting place although he seems to wax most of his cheeses and I don't follow that part.

I'll second that, Caerphilly is a nice and easy cheese. Lots of recipes around the forum - don't mind the ph targets at first, they will only be a source of frustration. Do use the flocculation method to determine the cut - it's easy and precise.

American Neufchatel is a good option if you want something exceedingly easy that is ready to eat in a couple of days.

Most beginners workshops seem to teach some or all of ricotta, cream cheese, feta, halloumi and camembert, all of which are almost instant gratification, and build confidence for going onto the semi-hard cheeses like caerphilly, which I'll also second (third?) as the next step. Margaret

I recommend Haloumi. We've recently made a lot (gave away heaps as christmas presents). Initially made it using milk from the supermarket (homogenised and pasteurised) and then later on from raw milk (that we pasteurised ourselves). It's a very forgiving curd and when you're finished making cheese, it's ready to eat!

I would start with Gouda as the first hard cheese make. Namely because after the initial stovetop heating to mid-80 degrees, you then use hot water to heat (after draining some whey). So you don't have to worry yet about a vat set up or about controlling the water bath temp to raise the whey temp slowly. Just slowly add more and more hot water. Then, its a softer curd that presses easily, and ripens at a fairly young age.

What kind of cheeses do you wish to make? I would recommend you pick a family to learn at first, and then pick a simple member of that family as your first cheese. Families of cheeses are things like Alpine Cheeses including Emmentaler, Gruyere, Appenzeller, and hundreds of others, or the Cheddar family, or Blues, or washed curd cheeses such as Gouda, Jarlsberg, Colby, Raclette, etc. (note that the washed curd family overlaps both the Alpine and the Cheddar families)

Think about what are your favorite cheeses that you buy to eat, and maybe consider this as your goal to make.

I myself never have nor ever plan to make anything in the Cheddar family or any of the moldy creamy French type cheeses. I make Alpine style because it is the tradition I come from.

If you want a good alpine style cheese, do a search for Mutschli on this board. It's super easy to make, small, and can be ready after 2 or 3 weeks or aged up to 3 months. Mutschli is easy because it is very forgiving.